Website Building Software. The Simple Way to Build a Business Online By John E Adams At Isnare.com Ezine Articles

Why Build a Website in the Age of Free Services?

A few years ago, building your own site was a necessity if you wanted an online presence. Building a site was a matter of learning HTML, securing a host, opening Notepad and coding by hand until things were just right.

That seems like the Dark Ages now. Today, those who want their own sites can use powerful site building software, many of which feature “what you see is what you get” editors. Or, one can use a content management system and readily available themes to produce good-looking sites. Having your own place on the web is a lot easier than it used to be.

It’s also cheaper. One of the most interesting developments of the last few years has been the growth of freely available options for those who’d like to create a web presence. There are free blog opportunities at sites including Blogger.com and WordPress.com. You can build Squidoo lenses or Hubpages. Weebly will let you build your own site and they’ll host it for you. Those are only a few examples.

In an environment like this, it’s easy to wonder “Why build a website with all of these easy to use free services around?”

That’s reasonable question, too. Many of the free options out there make it easy to create a credible site in record time using easy-to-understand interfaces. People love these tools and if you try them you won’t need to wonder why. Build a website with any of them and you’ll undoubtedly be impressed with just how easy it is.

But there are good reasons to build your own site. Its fine to use those free options as part of your overall business strategy, but you will want to maintain your own site as well. Here’s why.

First, creating your own site provides more flexibility in terms of appearance and in terms of specialized functionality. The freebies may look good, but they won’t also do what you need them to do.

Second, building a website yourself allows you more control over content. Many free services restrict the nature of the content publishers offer. When you own your own site and domain, you can work in a looser environment.

Third, having your own site gives you more control. I can’t imagine Blogger.com disappearing overnight, but some of the smaller free services aren’t going to operate indefinitely. Unless you own your own site, you could lose everything if a services closes shop. There’s also the risk of having an account mistakenly closed and not being able to get it back. These aren’t issues when you run the show.

Fourth, many free services function because they display advertising to visitors. You may end up splitting those revenues or, in some cases, the free service may keep all of them. Some free options have tight restrictions on what kind of product promotion and sales activities you can use, too. You can make more money (or at the very least keep more of the money your site is making) by building and maintaining your own site.

Why build a website? When push comes to shove, it’s a matter of control. Do you want to be the boss or do you want some third party to have eventual control over a key component of your business?

The answer should be obvious.

You don’t need to return to the days of hand coding. Feel free to use an advance website building tool. However, you should own your domain and set up your own hosting account. You can accomplish a great deal with the available free space on the web, but having your own site remains a necessity.

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